One Way to Look at Christmas Spending

Here's an interesting question: How many days will you have to work in order to pay for your Christmas generosity?

A few more details:

For example, if you earn $12 an hour and your family spends $800 for Christmas, you'll need to work 15.5 days to get that $800 back. That's more than three weeks! 

The piece also includes a chart that helps you determine how many hours you worked for what you spent this holiday season. Check it out -- you may just find that you are working a long time simply to spend a boatload on Christmas.

The combination of a decent job and keeping our Christmas spending low means that I end up working 15-20 hours for what we spend at Christmas. Not bad -- I'm willing to live with this.

The piece also includes some ways you can give inexpensive, meaningful gifts so you don't have to work so long to afford to bless those people your love this holiday season. Their ideas include:

• Consider giving a gift of service.
• Make a gift for someone.
• Give the gift of time together.

I know a couple who don't have much money but give tons of "gifts of service." In particular, they offer to watch another couple's kids while the second couple goes out and enjoys an evening together. Those of us who have kids know that babysitting fees can really add up, so this is a GREAT gift -- plus one that doesn't really cost the first couple anything.

How about you? Have you ever given "simple" gifts that made a big difference to someone? Or maybe you've received some.

Comments

[Curtis]

Hmm... the chart doesn't go up to my pay rate. But, doing the math myself, I came up with about 10 hours. We're spending less on Christmas than normal and I'm making a lot more than I've ever made before. Nice combination.